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artemis -> RE: The Thankfulness Thread (8/16/2008 9:24:22 AM)
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After 10 years of school (5 for undergrad, 5 for a graduate program that was a ridiculous 120 hours), my husband finally graduated this May. We have been married for 7.5 years and had been waiting for him to graduate before we had kids so that I would be able to stay home. We are expecting a baby in December, but it is August now and my husband hasn't found a job. The school year is about to start and I never, ever, ever in my life would have dreamed that I would be teaching again, but that is how things are working out. All that is a preface to my "Thankfulness" about the situation.
I am thankful...
*that our baby is healthy and growing. I had a miscarriage last December and it was the single most difficult, horrible experience of my life. I am thankful every day that my little boy is kicking, reminding me that he is doing well and continuing to grow. I can't wait to hold him in my arms [:)]
*that I have a job. When we had to sign our contracts last spring stating that we intended to return to the school in the fall, I almost didn't sign because I assumed my husband would have a job by now and I would be staying home to take care of the baby. This would be a much scarier situation if neither of us had a job. I have a friend who didn't sign her contract to teach this year and her husband (who graduated with my husband) hasn't found a job yet either.
*that my job pays enough that we can get by until Gabe finds a job.
*that because my job will pay our basic living expenses, Gabe can stay home with the baby if he doesn't have a job by December. I know that there are good daycares out there (I've worked in some), but looking for a day care in Dallas scares me. Besides, I understand they cost ~$1000/month [:o]
*I have good health insurance. Since I am still working, my school district pays most of my health insurance, which includes maternity care. If I weren't working, I would either have to do COBRA, or get some other health insurance that might not cover maternity. And being pregnant, I might not even be able to get other health insurance.
*Gabe resigned from his old job when he did. This might not seem like a good thing, but in May, Gabe resigned from his part-time-soon-to-become-full-time-job because of a bad situation between himself and the leadership there. We had originally planned to move to the town where he was working (an hour away) when he graduated and he would come on full time. If the situation hadn't escalated when it did (in April), we might have moved in July, had the blow up in August, and then he would have resigned after we had moved, I had quit my job, etc. If God didn't want us to stay where we were then, He let things fall apart at the perfect time.
*we can stay in our apartment. When our lease expired in July, we thought we would have to move or sign another year's lease. Since we're still hoping Gabe will get a job soon, we didn't want to sign a year's lease, but moving costs would have been ridiculous and we'd probably have to sign at least a 6 month lease on a new place. But after talking to our apartment complex, we found out that because we've lived here for a while, we could go month-to-month on our lease with only a minimal penalty.
I have many, many other things that I am thankful for, but these are all related to this one situation. Because things haven't worked out the way I wanted them to or the way I planned for them to (especially becoming a SAHM), I have to constantly remind myself of how good our situation really is and how God is still taking care of us, even if He isn't following the life-plan that I wrote [:)]
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